Madeleine Pelling – författare

'An entertaining read that vividly brings to life its motley cast of rogues, frauds and unfortunates' The Times'Scintillating ... a thrill ride through the filthy streets and dank rooms of Georgian England where the lies and deceptions that fooled a nation were born' Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five Here lies Fanny Lynes, whose whispers from beyond the grave set London alight with scandal.Here swings Mary Bateman, who lived a life of lies - and died a prophetess and murderer.Here stands Mary Willcocks. Or is it Anne Burgess? Or Princess Caraboo, from the distant island of Javasu?A ghost. A witch. A princess. This is a story of those who lie. And of those who choose to believe them.The discoveries of the Enlightenment unsettled as much as they excited. New truths challenged longstanding beliefs. Rationalism jarred with superstition. Which voices would be heard in this ferocious battle for certainty?From the chaos, three women and their hoaxes rose as symbols of terror and fascination. But were the lies surrounding Fanny Lynes, Mary Bateman and Mary Willcocks entirely of their own making? Why were the public transfixed?Questioning culpability and complicity, Pelling's engrossing history of this great age of the hoax reveals a veiled world of moral panic, tall tales and true crime, and holds a mirror to our own turbulent relationship with truth.

Exploring how 18th-century forms and narrative are taken-up, recycled and re-visioned in contemporary media, this book asks which histories are told and by whom. Through essays from international and multidisciplinary scholars and interviews with industry professionals, The 18th Century Today asks what function modern media performs when depicting the 18th century in our current world. Can such works speak to perceived 18th-century ideas and values and, simultaneously, the shifting paradigms of our own time? How, and why, should we engage?Highlighting how contemporary depictions of the past give marginalised lives greater visibility, the role genre plays in re-enacting or re-interpreting 18th-century culture, and the potential for modern adaptation to transmute and transcend historical suffering, the essays in this volume dig into adaptation across theatre, film, prose fiction, television and games. Covering works such as The Great, Belle, Bridgerton and Black Sails among many others, this book is both reflection and celebration, an acknowledgement of the 18th century’s traumatic legacies alongside a sense of contemporary culture’s capacity for transformation, renewal and justice.

'A wonderful, vibrant account' Susie Dent'This is the real eighteenth century' Dan Snow'A secret history like no other' BBC History Magazine, Books of the Year 2024What if walls could talk? For historian Madeleine Pelling, they can - if you know where to lookAn aristocrat carves obscenities into a tavern window with his diamond ring. A shopkeeper's daughter sketches customers with a piece of coal. A desperate highwayman, condemned to death, scratches his initials into his prison cell door.Writing on the Wall goes in search of the hidden voices of Britain's most rebellious and transformative era - a time when anyone in possession of a sharp point and ready surface could find their voice and immortalise their message. Through the marks made by ordinary people, scratched into walls, doors, windows and more, Madeleine Pelling brings the lost stories of the past to life in all their unguarded glory.